1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to weightless balloons that are made to have flat wide faces in order to make it function as a large kite that can fly with out the wind and carry loads with out the wind. It is designed to fill the need of an air-born transportation without the use of fuel, to fill the need of balloon that can be maneuvered transversely and obliquely against the wind, to provide a balloon that can soar high into the air when tied to an anchor on the ground instead of being blown down when there is wind it being a kite, to tap the energy of the high altitude wind and make it available at ground level, and to provide a multi-level balloon-kite wind sail that makes the maximum wind contact for a sail boat It is a design to produce a reverse action against overturn of the sailboat boat when same is being towed by a kite-sail. It is a design that enables a sail boat to cruise the ocean safely during the storm to take advantage of the high speed winds, it being that the passenger is air-born suspended up from the kite, the boat being steered by radio or remote control. It is also a new technology by which the maximum size of sail can be adapted for a minimum size of boat. It is also a new technology by which man can cruise over the land against the wind by means of kite. It is a new technology by which a windmill is-driven by a kite.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The existing balloons today that are being used as an air-born transportation are the spherical and /or the elliptical forms that just drift along the flow of the wind and cannot be maneuvered to cruise transverse to the wind, they being not in the form of a wide-faced kite, and none of those balloons have ever been tied to a moving anchor on the ground to change the path of the drifting balloon. None of those balloons have ever been used to function as a sail, and none of those sails has ever carried an air-born passenger--leaving the sail boat unoccupied. The existing sail today which was designed and put to use since the times of Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Colombus, is a framed fabric that stands against the wind thru a strong mast that is held vertical by the counter overturning stability of the vehicle. So, the maximum wind contact that can be provided to move the vehicle depends upon the ability of the vehicle to stay up-right against the overturning effect of the sail upon the vehicle. The larger the sail, the larger is the size of the vehicle required to take hold of the large sail upright. There were attempts to use the multi-level kite as a sail but never been used to practice due to the failure of the control systems available.
The first reference prior art is the "Propulsive Wing With Inflatable Armature" invented by Dominique M. Legaignoux, dated Nov. 24, 1987, which is a light kite in the form of a segment of a sphere, having a tubular structural frame of flexible materials inflated with compressed air to make said frame stiff and light weight strut which is covered by light sheets forming a large envelop that contains the said strut. Said envelop forms the lower and upper surface of the kite but not inflatable. The compressed air content of said frame can be replaced by a compressed lighter gas to make the wing able to float more on water and insubmersible in water in order to facilitate the start-out flight when sailing over the waters. This wing tapers to a tip on the left and on the right sides that serves as the control tie point for the left and right control ropes the lower ends of which are connected to each other to form a loop that passes thru a swivel block/pulley that is attached to the load being towed. The wing can be maneuvered to the left and to the right by making the left control rope shorter and vise-versa by making the loop of said control rope roll thru said pulley. It is to be used for traction and lifting.
This propulsive wing , as a new invention, has only one advantage over the existing ordinary kite--that is--it floats on water and is insubmersible in water--which special feature makes it easy to take-off from the water to serve as sail or to suspend a load while there is sufficient wind. The old ordinary type of kite can also take-off from the water provided it is on board of a long vessel or on board of a second floating vessel initially, and can also perform all the jobs that this subject wing can do after take-off. While said wing has good special features and advantages to some extent, it still has disappointing defficiencies and lack of essential features, as follows:
1. That it is not made of balloons, hence, it cannot float up in the sky to carry loads when there is no wind; PA1 2. That the inflatable armature/frame is not made of honeycombs of air tanks, hence, the whole wing will collapse when said frame is punctured by gun shots; PA1 3. That it is not able to sail against the wind there being no special moving anchor towed by it to the desired direction; PA1 4. That it is not able to fly at higher or lower angle automatically, there being only one tie point on each of its sides, said kite has to be brought down on to the water to attach its flap tail by zipper to increase its lifting power; PA1 5. That the objective of the inventor is to build a wing which means to say that he is working on a wide faced material that bumps or deflects large quantities of air mass in order to produce a lifting force upon said wing, which means to say that, although, as he said, the compressed air inside the armature can be replaced by pressurized lighter gas, he does not mean or never mentioned that he wanted to build a balloon that can float up in the sky even without wind, hence, the said envelope is not made inflatable. What has been solved actually by this prior art is only the ability of said-wing to start up its flight or able to take-off from the water--by initially sitting afloat on the water facing the wind. It does not solve the complex problems of a multi-level kite sail; PA1 6. That this Propulsive Wing cannot be constructed into a multi-level kite-sail; PA1 7. That this prior art does not show or does not demonstrate how it can be connected to a sail boot or to a load, hence, it cannot be used as a sail for a sail boat, neither can it be used to lift vertical loads. PA1 8. That only one-half (1/2) of its total intrados face is actually effective in deflecting the wind because said wing is semi-circular shape such that the wind bumped by the left and the right section is deflected towards the center of the arch due to the fact that air is compressible, and that the pressure built-up along section B-C-D tends to scape towards the left and right rear, partially avoiding the deflector flap D-E, because the left and the right sections of said wing are narrow, hence, a deflector wing should be a flat square face with peripheral side walls to make it concave to the wind, as shown in FIG. 1 of the herewith presented application, the "LABRADOR REIN-DEER KITE". PA1 1. That it is in error in relation with its utility purpose because the foils are made of narrow blades which are applicable only to high speed turbines to drive air instead of being driven by wind. The most effective wind deflector to develop pressure on the sail is in the form of a wide large square concave sail, because wind pressure upon the sail approaches zero (0) when the width of the sail approaches zero; PA1 2. That it is the heaviest and most massive construction of sail because each foil has to be able to stand by itself against the wind, and when it is tilted to one side it will go on pressing the boat to that side until the boat is turned over, hence, this kind of sail cannot be constructed into a large sail relative to the size of the boat; PA1 3. That it is the most expensive and most inefficient way of constructing a sail boat because it requires a much larger boat to hold this kind of sail than a boat that holds a light fabric sail; PA1 4. That this kind of sail is not a kite type as proposed by the herewith presented application. PA1 1. There is no counter-weight attached on both sides of the boat to prevent overturning when the wind is too strong; PA1 2. That there is no vertical wall-blade attached below the keel to serve as a moving anchor to prevent side-ward drifting specially when the sail is in the form of a large kite; PA1 3. That this boat is very vide due to the presence of the left and the right hulls, which configure makes the boat very jerky as there will be sudden lift on the right and sudden sinking on the left hulls by the large water waves; PA1 4. That the largest buoyancy of this type of boat is at the center of the hull which makes either end of said boat to be over-hanging high over the valleys of the water waves and then the front end will make a high drop after crossing the water wave, so this boat cannot sail during the storm; PA1 5. That there being no counter-weight in the form of a pipe filled up with water attached to the bottom or both sides of the hull, this boat will be lifted up out of the water by the large kite when the wind is very strong, if the kite is used as sail for this boat; PA1 6. That this type of boat, being multihulled, offers too much resistance against sailing thru the water, there being three (3) separate hulls to plow the waters; PA1 7. That this type of boat is certainly not the proper boat to use the Labrador Rein-Deer Kite as sail, there being no designed control structure/connector that can be used to maneuver the kite sail. PA1 (a) To solve all the aforementioned problems or impediments encountered by the foregoing reference prior arts; PA1 (b) To introduce new technology for making a kite that has maximum activeness with the wind by making it flat, rectangular, and concave to the wind; a new technology for making a balloon that functions as a kite; a new technology for making a balloon-kite that safely functions as an air-borne transportation; a new technology for making a Sky-Bike which is a flat balloon that is paddled manually by the passenger and which is further powered by Solar Cells; and a new technology for the creation of an air-borne propulsive force; PA1 (c) To introduce a new technology for tapping the energy of the high altitude winds and to make such energy available to ground level; PA1 (d) To introduce a new technology for making the various control systems for multi-level kites that function as air-borne sails for the purpose of maximizing contact with the wind at higher altitudes to drive a sail vehicle or machinery; PA1 (e) To introduce a new technology for making a moving anchor for a kite to make it cruise obliquely against the wind over the ocean and/or over the land; PA1 (f) To introduce a new technology for the construction of a mono-hull sail boat that cruises safely across the ocean during the storm, using said kite as sail; PA1 (g) To introduce a new technology in using multi-level kites to drive a windmill, or to pull transportation along aerial cable railway, or a no fuel air-borne tractor; PA1 (h) To introduce a new technology for gathering electricity from the cloudes and how to make use of such energy. PA1 1. A flat, rectangular, wide-faced balloon (1/2 acre to more than 5 acres wide for maximum wind contact), having downward trapezoidal side walls and a deflection flap at the rear to make it into a weightless kite that is concave to the wind, which is made up of honeycombs of smaller balloons of different shapes and sizes, which is maneuvered against the wind by tilting it left or right, which kite is able to lift loads without the assistance of the wind, as illustrated by part #1 in FIG. 1, the REIN-DEER KITE; PA1 2. A weightless kite of the same configuration as the above described kite, but which is simply constructed as a framed light cloth/fabric having a plurality of lifter balloons attached to its top face (instead of honeycomb balloons), as illustrated by FIG. 5-A, Parts #1, #3, & #6, as an alternative method of constructing the "Labrador Reing-Deer Kite"; PA1 3. An Air-borne transportation made up of multi-level assembly of said Rein-Deer Kite that carry an air-borne passenger capsule, said kite tows a moving anchor along its desired flight path, as illustrated in FIG. 5, FIG. 5-A, and FIG. 6; PA1 4. A remote controlled Moving Anchor in the form of a thin wall blade that bites and cuts thru the water and suspended under water by a floater pipe that has forward and reverse cruising ability, said anchor being towed by the kite to guide the flight path of said kite, as illustrated by part #24 and #22 in FIG. 5-A and FIG. 6; PA1 5. A remote controlled Rotary Spike Moving Anchor that bites and rolls on the land and on the ice to guide the flight path of said kite over the land and over icy regions, named "Tarantula Land Cruiser", as shown in FIG. 8, Part #31 and #32; PA1 6. A Calibrated Counter Weight in the form of a pipe filled up with water to serve as counter weight that prevents said moving anchor from being lifted out of the water by said kite, said weight stops pulling the floaters down when it gets submerged into the water, as illustrated by part #23 in FIG. 5-A and FIG. 6; PA1 7. A structural "T" Control Bar System, used to maneuver the said Rein-Deer Kite thru its control ropes that tilt said kite left or right and up or down, corresponding to the cruising needs of the kite, as illustrated by part #9, 10, & 11 in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6; PA1 8. A Triangular Control Arm Connector, attached to the base of the mast of the boat, that takes hold and manipulates said "T" Control Bar, and which keeps the boat up-right against the over-turning force from said Kite-Sail, as illustrated by parts #13, 14, & 15 in FIG. 5 and in FIG. 6; PA1 9. A Pipe Boat, that is 90% submerged, having submarine capability, in the form of a vertical stack pile of horizontal pipes, having the lower pipes filled up with water to serve as ballast weight, having its lowest part of the stack a long thin heavy wall that serves as anchor blade against sideward drifting and to serve as a vertical stabilizer for said boat, having its two ends provided with additional short floater pipes on top of said stack to transfer its buoyancy towards the ends of said boat in order to minimize oscillation of said boat by the action of the water waves, as illustrated by parts #22, 23, 24, & 26 in FIG. 6; PA1 10. An Elliptical/Circular Mono-Rail Track Connector, that is horizontally disposed on top of a boat (mono-hull or double hull) to replace said Triangular Control Arm Connector, that has an assembly of roller wheels that links said track to the bottom tip of said "T" Control Bar System, and which roller grips and runs around said track as the boat turns around in its varying orientation with the kite-sail, as illustrated by parts #28, & #30 in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8; PA1 11. A boat made up of pipe (mono-hull or double hull), which has larger diameter at both ends (at its outer 3rd or outer 4th) and smaller diameter at its half middle section, such that said middle sections gets submerged into the water waves when(crossing same, in order to minimize oscillation, as illustrated by Parts #23 and #26. Said boat is designed to cruise reversed and forward; PA1 12. A United Sail Windmill wherein the sails are made up of multi-level Rein-Deer Kite that tugs an aerial cable chain over the ocean and/or over the land as illustrated by the herewith accompanying FIG. 9, in a configuration similar to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,146; PA1 13. An Aerial Windmill that is in the form of multi-level Rein Deer Kite that carry a plurality of rotary blade windmills up in the sky, as illustrated by Part No. 27 in FIG. 10; PA1 14. A new method of gathering electricity from the clouds, in the form of a wire conductor brought up to the level of the clouds by the Rein-Deer Kite, the bottom end of said conductor being connected to a large capacitor enough to store the energy of the lightning-bolt and then passed thru an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen gas fuel or to recharge a battery, as illustrated by parts #50, 51, & 52 in FIG. 10; PA1 15. A Sky Bike that floats up in the air, which is moved forward and backward by the manual power of the passengers by foot pedal thru rotary blade propellers that are also made of balloons that float up in the air. The main body of said Sky Bike is a vertically disposed rectangular flat honeycomb balloon on the center top of another horizontally disposed rectangular flat honeycomb balloon. Its top and side surfaces are converd with Solar Cell to help the passengers power the propellers; PA1 16. A Balloon Kite used for traction or to provide an Air-borne propulsive force to pull iceberg or any floating materials on water and to pull materials on railroad track; PA1 17. A Vertical Balloon-Wall floating up at the level of the clouds, used to stop and/or to move the clouds to a desired concentration place where the rain is needed. PA1 a. It eliminates the problems of overturning the boat or the vehicle that carry the large sail; PA1 b. It provides the solution for the control systems for kites being used as an air-borne Tractor; PA1 c. It provides solution for an air-borne transportation that does not use fuel, a kite that cruise against the wind; PA1 d. It provide solution for tapping the high altitude winds to make such energy available to ground level; PA1 e. It provides the solution for sailing on the ocean safely even in the presence of storms; PA1 f. It provides the solution for deploying an air-borne propulsive force, that is parked up in the sky when there is no wind, and which is used but not limited to pull materials on water, on land, on aerial railway, on snow, and/or to lift loads up in the sky even without the assistance of the wind, and/or to pull an elongate closed-loope drive chain as part of a large windmill.
The second reference prior art is the WIND POWERED APPARATUS, invented by John Guthrie, of Canada, with U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,151 dated Sept. 26, 1978. This is a horizontal array of vertical solid foils which are independently and spacedly erected on a large horizontal solid bar that is being horizontally turned around to orient said foils to maximize deflection of the wind. This apparatus is specially designed to serve as sail for a boat. Said foils can be bunched close-y together towards one end of said horizontal bar footing when not in used. Said foils can also be rotated in accordance with the direction of the wind in a synchronous maner. The mechanical design of this invention is good, but the following deficiencies prevent the commercial use of this apparatus:
The third reference prior art is the "FLOAT CONNECTION ASSEMBLIES FOR MULTI-HULLED BOATS" invented by Ian Lindsay Farrier with Pat. No. 3,937,166 dated Feb. 10, 1976 which is a construction of a 3-hull boat for more stability against the over turning effect of the sail. Theoretically, the stability of this kind of boat is second to that of the Catamaran type, but neither of these two types can sail thru the ocean during the storm or when the water waves are very rough, because of the following deficiencies:
The fourth reference prior art is the "Plural-Hull Sailing Craft and Methods for Sailing Craft" invented by Robert S. Jamieson, under U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,100, dated Jan. 20, 1976, which is a two-hull boat similar to that of the catamaran type, wherein a third hull is mechanically movable to align longitudinally to the rear end of the left or the right hull in order to increase buoyancy at the leeward hull to prevent overturning of the boat due to wind force on the sail, and wherein the sail is just an ordinary triangular framed fabric attached to a mast. This design of a sail boat, like the catamaran type, has good stability in so far as when the ocean waves are peacefull, and, since it is also of a multi-hulled boat, it has all the deficiencies as enumerated in the herewith preceding third reference prior art, in the preceding pages hereof. Further, the sail being the ordinary type that is supported by a mast, its performance is too far below the performance of the self supporting balloon kite.
There have been many proposals for the construction of the most advantageous sail and for the most advantageous sail boat that included the multi-level kite sails, but none has come up with the right solution to enable man to sail thru the storms in the ocean without endangering the passenger/operator with the turbulence of the water waves created by the storm, wherefore, the herewith presented new invention has been created, which is hereby named the "LABRADOR REIN-DEER KITE".